Email Poem

Your IP Address: 3.17.185.36

Your Email Address:

To Email Address:

Subject

Personal Note:

Poem Title:

Poem

It was stupid of Walt
not to show it to Joan
before they got married
but he was too shy.
He had no idea 
what to expect
but he never expected 
her to laugh.
Not a laugh exactly, 
more of a cackle
children might hear 
from a witch on a broom
Saturday morning 
in a cartoon.

Joan's laugh rang out
the first night 
of their honeymoon.
Walt never got over it.
The marriage was over 
even if it continued
for six kids in ten years.
Like many men, Walt 
had no problem
copulating from afar
unencumbered by love.
It was dark in the bedroom.
Joan could have been
any woman.

Had he shown it to her
before they got married
and heard that laugh,
he would have left town,
embarrassed, you bet,
but there would have been
no wedding, no kids, 
no divorce, no years 
in a hotel room mailing 
alimony and support.  

After the divorce
things didn't improve.
Walt heard the laugh
in his dreams, in cabs, 
on elevators, in diners,
everywhere he went. 
He heard it after the kids
earned degrees, 
got married, did
well on their own,
escaping the pyre
of their childhood. 

At Joan's funeral
Walt told the kids why 
the marriage had failed.
He said he shouldn't 
have shown her 
the poem the night 
they were married.
She laughed because
she thought it was funny.
She knew nothing 
about poetry,
nothing of his
efforts to write it.
This was his first poem,
the first of more than 500
published after the laugh.

Who'd believe a laugh 
could end a marriage
before it began?
Over the years Walt asked 
critics and editors 
for their opinions 
about the poem.
None found it funny.
The consensus was
the piece was tragic
in theme and imagery.
The experts were right
in more ways than one.
 

Donal Mahoney

CAPTCHA Preview

Type the characters you see in the picture

Required